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Sunday, May 8, 2011

Food Network's new barbecue competition show starts tonight (Sunday) at 10pm and runs for 4 weeks. Six teams with renowned pitmasters compete through a series of cooking challenges, vying for a $50,000 prize. Friday I had the opportunity to discuss the show with host, Chef Bryan Caswell, in a conference call with a few other bloggers.

The show clearly is not intended to be a behind the scenes look at a KCBS style BBQ competition. This doesn't mean a lot to most people but some competitive barbecuers will declare, "That is NOT BBQ - it's grilling" if it isn't ribs, chicken, brisket, and pork done low and slow. Chef Caswell took that question straight on and said that there was no way to make everyone happy. Bbq means a lot of different things to different people and gave a great example of how both his grandmothers make gumbo. Both say theirs is the best and the other doesn't know how to make gumbo.

The show challenges do involve live fire, wood, and a protein, "mostly smoking". The pitmasters get to use their own smokers, which is a good thing in my opinion. There will be some dramatic moments for sure and Mother Nature gets a bit snippy along the way. One very interesting comment that Chef made was that he thought the major regions of US barbecue were represented well but then threw in an "except for _________". The interesting part is there was someone representing that region in the competition so I guess the implication is that he/she/they sucked. You have to tune in to find out what that is all about.

I'm looking forward to the show tonight. I'd like to say I'm impartial, but I'm not. I'm pulling for Chris Lilly and Ken Hess to win it all.

Five Tips for Smoked Chicken

[My Five Tips series are not how-to tutorials. These are meant to be quick tips that I would share if we bumped into each other in the grocery store and you said, "Hey, I'm grilling/smoking ________ tomorrow, got any pointers?" These are ideas that consistently work for me, regardless of the recipe I'm doing.]

All that talk about barbecue made me hungry, so I smoked a couple of chickens that afternoon. We have grilled a bunch of birds this year but it has been a while since I smoked some. When I bit into the finished product, I remembered why it is worth taking the 3-4 hours extra. The heavenly hint of smoke and the tender, juicy meat got raves from the whole family.

Beer butt chicken my arse. Chicken on a throne is cute I guess(unless you're the chicken) but it is a set up for uneven cooking temps. You're putting the breast (most likely to dry out) in the hotter/higher part of your cooker. A spatchcocked or butterflied bird lies flat and in a narrower range of temperatures for more even cooking. Just my opinion, but it's the right one;)

Wood You?

A lot of people will tell you to use a mild fruit wood for smoking chicken because poultry takes on smoke easily. Some will specifically tell you not to use hickory or oak. I disagree, I like hickory for chicken and turkey. I like to use 2-3 fist sized chunks of hickory and 1-2 chunks of cherry buried in my coal for grilling chicken.

I smoke my chickens at 250f for about 3 1/2 to 4 hours. I take them out when they hit 160f in the breast and 180f in the deep thigh.

Bird 1

Bird 2

Blogger Get Together

It's hard to believe that our East Tennessee blogger get together at Larry's is just over a month away, on June 19th.

Double click on the above for details of our upcoming blogger party. We discovered that we scheduled it for Father's Day, but decided to proceed - treat Dad to a day trip to Almost Heaven South. Several folks have already committed, but we'd like to hear from everyone by June 1 who plans to attend - email Larry at grandpop1@yahoo.com. We want to be sure we have plenty of food, but don't want to overbuy.

14 comments:

I'm excited about the show too!! Though I'm sure Chris is not looking forward to me watching yet another food show...he says they make him too hungry!! lolGreat tips on smoking chicken...I've become a big believer in brining, especially with a full chicken!Wish Alexis a Happy Mother's Day for me! I so wish tickets weren't so much to Tennessee, I would love to be there for the blogger party!!

Well look at you, gettin' all edumacated soundin' and all!! You're not gonna get too big fer yer britches now are ya? :) Look, I won't slam anybody for a beer can chicken because frankly they are really really good, but I will say that smoked chicken is probably my favorite. Sure wish I could make my way up to Larry's but I gotta save my money to afford the gas to Disney! :)

Spatchcock? Seriously? Sounds like something I'd do to the mister! Why aren't you on the TV show? I'm sure the person who can't BBQ is from the Northwest...who can BBQ in the rain?!? I did the can/chicken thing once - turned out dry as the Sahara...now I know why...Spatchcocked...my word for the day - hilarious! xo, Nan

I want smoked chicken something FIERCE! I would love a smoker someday! It would make the BEST chicken salad! I am scheduled to work that weekend, but we should be able to make it! What time will it start? Can you e-mail me with details? (food-hound@hotmail.com) Merci!!

Boy do I love anything smoked! and i'll take BBQ, grilled, or smoked chicken any day...i haven't had beer can chicken, but we did have coca cola chicken and I must say that was a nice surprise. beer notsomuch.

I was disappointed in this new show. The premise is silly. Have some cooks run to a truck for their ingredients. Poor famous Dave had a disadvantage. I thought Chris Lily was going to throw an elbow getting his protein. The food network is trying to produce a show at low cost. They have put it in their cookie cutter format and have baked an inferior product.

Chris, I watched best in smoke, and it was straight up grilling. I totally agree with Chilebrown above, it is a silly concept. While slightly entertaining, it had nothing to do with barbecue. I didn't think any barbecue show could be worse than the second season of barbecue pitmasters, but the Food Network did it.